Pssh, Hogwarts, no. Beauxbatons all the way. A chateau in southern France? Yes, please.
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Beauxbatons_Academy_of_Magic
To not be completely useless, there are rankings of schools that have the best quality of life, which is what I think the OP is asking in truth:
http://www.ordoludus.com/9.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/04/11/the-100-happiest-colleges.html
University of Miami
unc chapel hill
To each his own…The very idea that is is in the middle of suburbia is what makes it attractive to me. The neighborhood is filled with beautiful homes and lots of trees. Every time I visit, I want to move there! (P.S. OP didn’t say busy city, but rather “nice town”)
I don’t know what you mean by “cars jammed everywhere”. It’s a college campus, of course there are cars, but I’ve never had much of a problem finding a space when I visit.
“just a strip mall?” - There is a cute downtown village within walking distance with lots of shops, restaurants and a movie theater. Nice place to visit and people watch. If you want a full shopping mall or any other typical store (i.e. Target) there are plenty within a short driving distance.
As for Harvey Mudd — well, yes, the students (for some reason that is beyond my understanding) like their “dumpy” furniture outdoors. I will admit, that is a bit of an eyesore. But I’ve been told that the students like it that way…But what the dorms lack in beauty, they make up for in community and “dorm culture”.
As for the OP’s original criteria: "good academics, good faculty, high ranking, nice campus, nice town, connected alumni AND mild weather " I think the 5 C’s really hit the mark!
If nice weather and connected alumni are key in addition to good academics and nice kids, I’d have to say Stanford. Indeed, Stanford is at the very top with respect to faculty, students, name, alumni (mostly tech but lots of others as well), campus, etc. Other schools may have one or the other but usually not both. Perhaps there are a few with connected alums locally. Is that UCSD (which certainly has nice weather). A number of New England / Mid-Atlantic schools would have all of that except weather.
UCSD checks all those boxes. So does UCLA but I don’t think Westwood’s a particularly nice town. Also Stanford and possibly UCSB
I think seasons are fun – I would become bored with the same weather pretty much every day, even if it were sunshine.
That said, if we define “mild” as less than about 90 and greater than about 40 most of the time…
Possible states:
Then we’d have, potentially:
This helps to explain the high selectivity of the top California schools – Stanford, Caltech, USC and Pomona/Mudd/CMC are the “Ivy equivalents” (highly selective private schools) in California. There are relatively few of them (compared to the East Coast…) and many kids want to go to college in California.
ClaremontMom does a good job defending Claremont! My Pomona D loves it there (has been to the Birkenstock store, as have I). The only issue she has with Pomona is that they need another comp sci prof, but I know they were interviewing. It’s a bubble, certainly not for everyone. My other D went to college in the heart of DC and that was her perfect place.
Westwood Village, adjacent to the UCLA, is FABULOUS. It’s vibrant and beautifully maintained with many, many diversions including movie premiers and test screenings, great local restaurants, unusual shoppes. And you are minutes away from the beach, west Hollywood.
While most all Southern California campuses are well-situated to have easy access to beaches/mountains/desert, none of them have all that plus a cool college town like Westwood Village next to it. Back in the day, Westwood Village used to draw students from USC, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, even CalTech (which has Old Pasadena which is awesome too). If you are looking for a college town in Southern California, you can’t do better than Westwood, IME.
My daughter loved Scripps! It was on her short list and was the first women’s college she considered. (She ended up closer to home.) I’d definitely put the Claremont colleges on the list of schools meeting the “almost perfect” criteria.
Emory
Unc chapel hill
William and mary
Sdsu
Georgetown
Wellesley, obviously:
Lovely campus
Nice town
Easy access to Boston, a major cultural and business center
Top academics
High ranking
Strong, connected alumni network
“I think seasons are fun – I would become bored with the same weather pretty much every day, even if it were sunshine.”
As I recall, “seasons” is a concept that usually wound up involving jumper cables. I don’t find perfect sunshiny weather to be boring at all. In fact I think it’s great.
Cal Tech, Stanford and UCLA. USC, if you don’t care about the crummy surrounding neighborhood.
University of Michigan and University of California, Berkeley.
What are the Best non winter weather schools?
Stanford
USC
uCLA
Rice
Vanderbilt
Duke
Miami
Tulane
Emory
Beyond the “mild weather” universities listed in #75, I think of the Claremont Schools, Caltech, Occidental, Cal Poly SLO, UCSD and SB, Washington & Lee, Davidson, and Trinity University (TX).
Stanford. No need for almost! :)) :)>-
If Taco Bell appeals to you… 
How about schools w/ 4 seasons, and NOT a preponderance of hot and humid weather? That’s what some of us think of as good weather!